Nuance: Obama Slams McCain for Taking Iranian Leaders at Their Word

President Barack Obama lit into Sen. John McCain Saturday over the Arizona Republican’s recent comments about the framework agreement with Iran about its nuclear program. “When I hear some, like Sen. McCain recently, suggest that our secretary of State, John Kerry, who served in the United States Senate, a Vietnam veteran, provided exemplary service to this nation is somehow less trustworthy in the interpretation of what’s in a political agreement than the Supreme Leader of Iran, that’s an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries, and we’re seeing this again and again,” Obama told reporters at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama. McCain, in a Thursday radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, had called Kerry “delusional” with respect to the terms of the deal with Iran...“Now we have a senator suggesting that our secretary of State is purposefully misinterpreting the deal and giving the Supreme Leader of Iran the benefit of the doubt in the interpretation,” Obama said. “That’s not how we’re supposed to run foreign policy, regardless of who’s president or secretary of State. We can have arguments, and there are legitimate arguments to be had. I understand why people might be mistrustful of Iran. I understand why people might oppose the deal, although the reason is not because this is a bad deal, per se, but they just don’t trust any deal with Iran,” Obama said. “You know, they prefer to take a military approach to it.”

"That's not how we're supposed to run foreign policy," we're informed by the man who's threatening to veto a bipartisan bill that would allow the coequal legislative branch to review and vote on any finalized accord with Iran. Obama accuses McCain of hyperpartisanship and arguing in bad faith, then goes on to say that people like McCain would oppose any deal with Iran, and prefer war anyway. McCain fires back:

“It is undeniable that the version of the nuclear agreement outlined by the Obama Administration is far different from the one described by Iran’s Supreme Leader – on inspections, sanctions relief and other critically important issues,” said McCain. “These widely divergent explanations of the nuclear deal must be fully explained and reconciled if we are to give serious consideration to this agreement.”

Here's a State Department spokesman struggling to reconcile those same discrepancies, turning instead to self-congratulatory remarks about outlining what the Obama administration has "achieved" in talks with Tehran:

But Iranian leaders have publicly rejected the veracity of those "achievements" -- casting the terms of the deal as even more permissive than State's so-called fact sheet indicates, and brazenly daring the West to walk away from the negotiating table. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest blasted McCain on Twitter as "naive and reckless" for "believing every word" of the Iranian supreme leader's public statements. This is the spokesman for an administration that is championing an agreement that heavily relies on the good faith of that very same Iranian supreme leader's government. Earnest's criticism echoes previous White House dismissals of Ayatollah Khamenei's "death to America" chants. Khamenei's regime has endlessly aided and abetted the killing of Americans for decades, with the Iranian military staging a simulated attack on a replica US aircraft carrier just a few weeks ago. Khamenei also calls for the annihilation of Israel; that genocidal fanaticism is not addressed in the nuclear framework, and the US government won't insist that Tehran recognize Israel's right to exist. Iran actively arms and helps direct terror groups who attack Israel from the north and south. It's almost as if they believe in, and act upon, their own vile pronouncements. I'll leave you with the Free Beacon's montage of the many times President Obama professed a strong commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a goal he appears to have abandoned. Watch to the end for the grim punchline:

Obama himself now admits this would-be deal would enshrine an internationally-legitimate Iranian nuclear program that would place the regime on the doorstep of producing nuclear weapons as soon as certain restrictions begin to expire. Obama has signaled his fixation on achieving a "deal," no matter the cost, and has effectively ruled out the threat of military action. His own rhetoric states that if Iran cheats on the agreement (as they so often do), the "consequence" would be the reimposition of sanctions that Obama himself has argued do not work -- and that would actually be very difficult to re-implement. No wonder the Iranians are so emboldened.